Slobberknocker Central Monday Night Recap #106
November 24th, 1997
WCW Monday Nitro:
Live/Taped: Live.
Length: Two Hours+.
Location: Saginaw, Michigan.
HOUR ONE Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Larry Zbyszko.
- The New World Order has assembled backstage, preparing to make their
entry. Bischoff is smoking a cigar. Everyone is present except Kevin
Nash. One might think we are being shown this because something is
supposed to happen. Instead, the camera follows them to the ring, where
they generate their weekly quota of hot air. Hogan brings a "Bischoff
owns Vince" sign in the ring (taken from the fan which it had most likely
been planted with in the first place). Rick Rude reprises his
Degeneration X role by standing around and doing nothing. Bischoff
introduces Hall as the man who beat "59 other men!" (well ... 47 or so
anyway. I didn't count anywhere near 60 for the WW3 main event. Maybe I
just missed one or two ... or a dozen). Hogan then gets on the mic and,
knowing that Sting isn't in the building, challenges "anyone in the
building" to come out tonight for a title match.
Here comes the Giant, followed by J.J. Dillon. The Giant accepts the
challenge, but Dillon says he isn't cleared to wrestle. The Giant says
he'll sign a waiver absolving WCW of any responsibility. Dillon agrees
and the match is set. The Giant rightly points out that the WCW Title
belt still has his name on it. He has a cast halfway up to his ass on
his right arm. I thought it was his hand that was injured?
You know why I hate the NWO? All bias against WCW aside, or my
monumental dislike for Eric Bischoff, it simply comes down to this:
they're the bad guys. I'm SUPPOSED to not like them! Somebody out there
explain why I should ignore the traditional "face/heel" structure and
like them. Their t-shirts are cool? Kevin Nash's long hair is cool? Buff
Bagwell gives me a "special feeling"? Seriously, what is it about the NWO
you guys out there like? Their interviews are weak across the board, so
it can't be that. Hennig and Bagwell are okay wrestlers, so maybe I can
see them being liked. Savage and Hall are adequate. Beyond these four,
what is it that's just so damned great about the NWO? Konan is really
that cool? Scott Norton? VINCENT!?
- THE STEINER BROTHERS (w/ Ted DiBiase) vs. DISORDERLY CONDUCT
Squash.
- Nitro Girls. Yay ... boobies. WCW wants me to treat them as objects, well
then I'm willing to oblige.
- MENG (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. BOOKER T. (w/ Jacquelyn)
Meng is beating the piss out of Booker, but Booker escapes from a
powerbomb and rolls Meng up for the upset pin. Enraged, Meng slaps on the
Tongan Death Grip(tm). Out comes Stevie Ray (you know ... the Harlem Heat
guy that sucks) with a balsa wood chair, which he breaks over Meng's
head. Just watching it hurt me more than that chair would ever hurt Meng.
Stevie Ray gets his throat massaged Tonga style as well.
I actually liked this match, though if this were the WWF the equivalent
would probably be Henry Godwinn vs. Ahmed Johnson. (Which isn't really a
fair comparison since neither Meng nor Booker T. have legitimately hurt
as many guys as Ahmed has).
On the way to the break they play the special sneak peek look at "Aliens
Resurrection". The clip lasted exactly 30 seconds.
In case you didn't quite get it, the Steiners won the above match.
Easily. In poor fashion.
- They show still photos chronicling Scotty Riggs' destruction at the hands
of Raven at the PPV. They show a snippet of the J.J. Dillon interview
from the PPV in which he made the ultimatum stating that Raven had 24
hours to sign with WCW. They go live to Mean Gene Okerlund and Dillon.
Dillon says Raven did indeed sign a contract overnight, but that it had a
"lot of scribbling in the margins" which altered the contents of the
contract. Raven, at ringside with his Flock, says he'll wrestle when,
where, how, and against who he wants to. Dillon says he isn't happy with
the stipulations, but will apparently abide by them and considers Raven
officially under WCW contract. During all this Scotty Riggs slinks out
and takes a seat among the members of Raven's Flock (which now includes
Riggs, Perry Saturn, Billy Kidman, Van Hammer, Sick Boy and Skank).
- CHRIS BENOIT vs. RAVEN
Raven gets up and sends Sick Boy into the ring, making it ...
- CHRIS BENOIT vs. SICK BOY
Very short match, as Benoit quickly gets the upper hand. The other Flock
members run in, but Benoit holds them off. He then applies a submission
hold to get the win. Another wave comes in and Benoit does well until
Saturn clocks him with his TV Title belt. The Flock stomps Benoit into
the mat as Raven looks on.
Skank, by the way, looks just like Glacier. Short blond hair.
- A black-and-white NWO sponsored promo replays Bischoff's "victories" over
Larry Zbyszko. Larry heads to the ring and challenges Scott Hall. NWO
leaflets drop from the ceiling, showing a picture of Bischoff kicking
Zbyszko. Bischoff comes halfway to the ring and says Hall is too busy
defending his tag team title to accept Larry's challenge. Larry
challenges Bischoff, which Bischoff basically accepts, but security keeps
the two separated. I guess you can pencil these two in for Starrcade.
HOUR TWO Hosted By: Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
- Nitro Girls.
- PRINCE IAUKEA vs. ALEX WRIGHT (w/ Debra McMichael)
They show stills from the Wright/Steve McMichael match from the PPV.
These two put together a solid match (though frankly by this point I'd
switched over to RAW for good). The upshot here is that Wright is
dominating, but Debra jumps up on the apron and her sash gets caught on
a turnbuckle bolt. Wright is so distracted telling her to get down that
Iaukea is able to hit a crossbody off the top for the upset pin.
Afterwards Wright gets on the house mic and "fires" Debra. (Gee, and I'd
just made the logical assumption that the two were sleeping together).
Heading into the commercial they show a good (but waaaaaay over the top)
promo for Starrcade.
- RANDY "MACHO MAN" SAVAGE (w/ Elizabeth) vs. DISCO INFERNO
Tony Schiavone mentions Bret Hart for the only time in the entire show
(as far as I could tell), stating flat out that Hart was in the NWO.
Savage has no trouble whatsoever with Disco, pinning him after an elbow
off the top. After his third elbow he throws down the ref. Liz, who had
also gotten involved in the match, comes in and places a boot on Disco as
Savage makes a three count. (Since this is WCW we can probably count that
as an actual victory, making Liz the number one contender for the WCW
Television Title). Savage hits a fourth elbow off the top before the
carnage is concluded.
- Another of those Nitro party videos. This one wasn't nearly as
embarrassing as the previous one: mostly because it looked more like a
real party (as opposed to a drunken frat's cheap attempt to get on TV).
- BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. DEAN MALENKO
For those trashing the likes of Scott Taylor and Flash Flanagan in the
WWF's Light Heavyweight tournament, don't forget that Armstrong was once
considered one of WCW's top Cruiserweight contenders.
A good match, but the crowd was absolutely dead until Malenko slapped on
the Texas Cloverleaf for the win.
- Mean Gene interviews Steve "Mongo" McMichael. Debra comes out and tries
to sweet talk him into taking her back. He tells her to "get the hell out
of here!"
- Nitro Girls.
- BUFF BAGWELL vs. CHRIS JERICHO
Another good match. (You'd have a hard time convincing me that it meant
anything, though). Bagwell gets the somewhat illogical win after Jericho
had dominated for most of the match. Bagwell catches him with a boot to
the chin, then blew his finisher off the turnbuckles (hitting him
crosswise instead of flipping over him for the Buff Blockbuster).
- They show stills from the Hennig/Flair PPV match.
- CURT HENNIG vs. RAY TRAYLOR
Mike Tenay plugs the Brian Pillman memorial video WCW is putting
together.
Why the hell is Traylor getting a U.S. Title match? Hasn't he gotten
beaten up by the NWO every week for the last month or two?
This match is no different, as Traylor once again falls victim to an NWO
run-in and beating. In one particularly terrible spot during the match,
Traylor hits Hennig with an uppercut. Hennig then leisurely turns around,
takes a step and blatantly THROWS himself over the top rope to the floor
(as if Traylor's blow had sufficient force to knock him from the ring).
That aside, this match was actually watchable for the most part. Traylor
is in control, on the verge of winning (yeeeeeeaaaaah suuuuuuuuure), when
the NWO run in, drawing the DQ. Traylor is once again laid out and "NWO"
is painted on his carcass.
- Clip of the Giant getting his hand hurt by Hall last week, then still
photos from the PPV.
- "HOLLYWOOD" HOGAN vs. THE GIANT
Bischoff and Rick Rude chase the announcers away to do the commentary for
the match. Rude doesn't say much: maybe two or three sentences. Bischoff
uses the time to trash the Steiners.
The Giant, despite his injured hand, manages to nail Hogan with a choke-
slam. The NWO quickly flood the ring, drawing the DQ. (This is #1).
Sting walks to the ring and hits the Giant's cast with a baseball bat.
Yup ... Kevin Nash. (This is #2).
Sting drops from the ceiling and tragically falls through the canvas of
the ring. Nash starts hitting it in the head with the bat, revealing that
it's a mannequin. (This is #3). The show ends.
- Next week: Nothing announced.
Comments:
Three (3) elements made up the end of this week's show and all three of them
have been done before. The NWO DQ run-in has been done dozens of times. Nash
has dressed as Sting two or three times now. Finally, the dummy Sting bit
was done once before as well. Obviously originality wasn't a big concern
here.
While some of the wrestling was okay, there wasn't the usual "standout"
match where you could point to it as obviously being the best of the
evening.
My overall impression is one of "did anything happen?" I guess I'd attribute
that to the fact that they now have to build to Starrcade: a PPV which was
already established months ago as being "Hogan vs. Sting" and nothing else.
Sure, they'll try to attach a big undercard, but the vast majority of buyers
will be tuning in to see Hogan and Sting. Even as the matches of the
undercard take place all the announcers will be able to discuss is the main
event. WCW may manage to put together their biggest undercard ever and it
will be overshadowed by the "greatest match of all time".
I dunno ... this wasn't a bad Nitro, it just didn't do anything for me. All
things considered that probably constitutes high praise from me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
WWF RAW is WAR:
Live/Taped: Live.
Length: Two Hours.
Location: Fayettevile, North Carolina.
WWF RAW Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jim Cornette.
- Bret Hart or no Bret Hart, the crowd is huge. Jim Ross later announces
that it's an all-time attendance record for the arena. One out of every
two fans seems to have a sign.
- "Ravishing" Rick Rude's music starts up, but it's "Handsome Harvey"
(Whippelman) instead. Dressed in a suit and carrying the Haliburton, he
heads to the ring to do the usual Degeneration X intro ("cut the music!")
DX comes out. Shawn Michaels grabs the mic and says "THAT was a hard
spot to fill!" then pushes Whippelman down. Hunter Hearst Helmsley shoves
him out of the ring.
Shawn then gets all serious and, in a very emotional tone, says that not
only was Bret Hart screwed at Survivor Series, but that Bret, the WWF and
the fans all deserved better. He says he takes full responsibility for
what happened. Shawn says he's been in contact with Bret without the
knowledge of the WWF, the Internet and "underground dirt sheets". Since
Bret is still under WWF contract until November 30th, Bret will come out
later in the show and the two will settle things once and for all-either
with a handshake or a fight.
Ohhhhhhhh reeeeeaaaaaaalllllllly?!
- LEGION OF DOOM vs. ROAD DOG/"BAD ASS" BILLY GUNN
Mr. Ass and the Dog come out wearing the LOD's shoulder pads. Like them
or not, these guys are currently the most interesting tag team in either
the WWF or WCW.
During the match Jim Ross mentions the ECW pay-per-view scheduled for
this Sunday: November to Remember. A lot of folks have been making a big
deal of this, pointing to it as evidence that the two feds will be
working together soon in an increased capacity. Ross says that ECW has
"purchased" some time and will air some kind of a pre-taped promo for
their PPV. Ross warns that ECW "is not for everyone" and that it isn't a
sanctioned WWF event. My bet is that this is being said because the PPV
will feature a number of present and past WWF wrestlers, and one of the
bigger matches involves a stipulation in which the winner will hold aloft
his promotion's flag. As the angle is currently running in ECW, Sabu, Rob
Van Dam, the Pitbulls and Lance Wright are all "acting under the orders
of Vince McMahon"-or so they'd like you to think. They make numerous
references to "Stamford, Connecticut", wear WWF clothing and even bring a
WWF flag to the ring (Sabu and Van Dam, anyway). I myself took Ross'
comments as an attempt by the WWF to distance themselves from the PPV,
yet assist ECW in hyping it-clearly making the distinction between the
two companies. We'll see this weekend on Shotgun (and probably Superstars
as well) what this all amounts to. As to future joint ventures ... I'll
believe it when I see it.
The match actually starts off pretty good, but Hawk runs out of gas
quickly (and as we all know Animal bats cleanup for the LOD, meaning Hawk
usually spends the most time in the ring). An early commercial (and the
stretch of restholds that usually calls for) kills any chance for this
match to ever be anything much better than "okay". Once back the match is
firmly set on "idle", with Hawk taking a prolonged amount of punishment
until he can make the hot tag to Animal. Animal, as many people have
noticed, is in the best shape he's been in in years, and looks pretty
good cleaning house. They then set up a great ref bump: Animal pitches
Billy Gunn into the ropes and launches a flying shoulderblock. Gunn drops
down and Animal squarely nails the ref. An age old spot which looked
really good here since the ref didn't obviously move himself into
position. The LOD then set Gunn up for the Doomsday Device, but Road Dog
nails Animal with a chair. Hawk chases the Dog out of the ring while
Billy rolls Animal up. A second ref enters the ring and makes the three
count. New World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions.
Gunn and the Dog are so happy (and afraid of retaliation) that they run
completely out of the arena ("just like bank robbers!" yells Ross) and
into a waiting sports car in the parking lot. Gunn, at the wheel, tears
out of the lot, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a long white
stretch limo which is pulling up to the arena.
Going into the break they run this week's Karate Fighters spot. This week
Sunny bedazzles Shrimp Scampi with her cleavage, which gives her the edge
and the victory. A slow-mo replay shows Sunny's winning moves: both of
them ... bouncing up and down.
After the commercial they replay the getaway, make note of the limo, and
show Hawk and Animal assaulting a security guard in the ring (which took
place during the break). Ross speculates as to whether or not Bret Hart
is in the limo. Jim Cornette says everyone who is supposed to be in the
arena is already there and accounted for. (Does that include Kane?)
- Goldust, in a wheelchair, is rolled to the ring. Michael Cole moves in
for the interview. After showing clips of the events which have lead up
to this (between Goldust and Vader) Cole asks what Goldust hit Vader with
last week. Goldust ducks the question and says what has been afflicting
him has spread throughout his body. ("A broken bone!" yells Cornette).
Goldust says he has become a paraplegic, and now in the last day a
quadriplegic. He asks Cole to cross his legs for him. He also requests an
alcohol rub from his nurse (which draws a swishy, lispy "Good God yes!"
from him as she rubs his shoulders). Goldust continues recounting his
woes until ...
"It's time ... it's time ... it's ... "
Vader strides to the ring, where he accuses Goldust of faking his
injuries. Goldust's protests fall on deaf ears. He grabs the golden one,
but receives an eyeful of rubbing alcohol from the nurse, who tears off
her blues to reveal Luna Vachon! Vader stumbles around and issues a
censor bleeped profanity as Goldust and Luna make their escape. Jim Ross
accuses the duo of raiding Elton John's wardrobe, then ties it in to the
most appropriate Elton song title: "The Bitch is Back!"
- Cornette sarcastically calls a live shot of the white limo "captivating".
- They show clips recapping the Helmsley/Slaughter confrontation. They then
show classic clips of Slaughter in the ring.
Commissioner Slaughter comes to the ring. In a bizarre, over the top
interview (which ran much too long) Slaughter talks about dead bodies and
gut wounds and such. He starts off mild mannered: by the end he's wearing
his drill sergeant hat and nearly frothing at the mouth. Slaughter says
his match with Helmsley will be a "Boot Camp" match. If I remember right,
the stipulations for one of these involves Greg Gagne showing up wearing
cammo and a headband calling himself "Rambo".
- BRIAN CHRISTOPHER (w/ Jerry "the King" Lawler) vs. FLANAGAN
Flanagan loses his "Flash" for this one.
Early on Christopher nails Flanagan with a Sunset Flip from the apron to
the floor (nice move). From then on it's a foregone conclusion. Lawler
gets in a few licks while Flanagan is down on the floor. Christopher
finishes him off a few minutes later with a legdrop off the top rope.
Christopher will face Scott Taylor next week. Taka Michinoku faces
Aguila. The two winners will square off at the December 7th In Your
House "Degeneration X" PPV.
Two matches ... ouch. It was entertaining, but that's just too few
matches for an entire hour.
WWF WAR ZONE Hosted By: Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler.
- The War Zone has its own new intro now. It's similar to the start of the
first hour, but it incorporates more of the footage the WWF shot back in
1995 for the unsuccessful country music intro (which they only used one
week). My brother tells me that the music is from the "In Your House"
video game for the Playstation.
- DX returns to the ring. Helmsley quickly tosses off a few insults at Sgt.
Slaughter, resuming his military theme from last week (threatening to
show Slaughter's wife his "soldier in the purple helmet!'). Shawn then
takes the mic and introduces "Bret Hart" ...
... who turns out to be a midget in a Bret Hart mask. Dressed in a
leather jacket, he plays to the crowd just as Hart does. Once in the
ring, Helmsley acts as ringmaster, recounting the events at Survivor
Series. Michaels pushes "Bret" down, then applies the Sharpshooter.
Helmsley holds the mic close as "Hart" (mimicking referee Earl Hebner)
yells "Ring the bell! Ring the bell!" The mini "Hart" then confirms that
Shawn is the best, the Icon, etc. A "WCW" sign is slapped on his butt
and "Bret Hart" is sent packing.
While Hart's theme is still playing Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart comes out.
"I AM the Hart Foundation!" yells the Anvil. He threatens to take out
Michaels, but Shawn turns the tables by pointing out that Jim has always
been in Bret's shadow, and that he's not benefiting from Hart's new big
WCW contract. "Bret's at home in Calgary," says Shawn, pointing out that
Jim is here working to feed his family. When asked about the Bulldog,
Neidhart says he's having surgery done on his knee. Shawn makes fun of
this, alluding that the Bulldog is faking it (adding that he himself is
"familiar" with that type of injury). Neidhart says Owen hart is
"emotionally distraught", which Shawn also makes light of. Shawn bottom
lines it by offering Neidhart the opportunity of his life: a spot in
Degeneration X.
Funny stuff, though it went on too long. Yeah, they pulled a "Nitro" with
the bait-and-switch. If you're still pissed, Hart will be doing the same
when he shows up in WCW. (Consider this: would this segment have been
"disgraceful" if Hart was still in the WWF? Suppose they had done it six
months ago. Why should it be any different now? He didn't die, folks, he
just quit the WWF. That's all). Michaels now has a firm lock on "most
hated wrestler" in the world.
- They show a brief clip of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin having dinner with
the winner of the Survivor Series "Super Supper" contest. They
fortunately cut this short before it looks like a Nitro Party video.
- A special look at Butterbean, showing him beating up guys, video games
he's in, a song that's been written about him and other stuff that has
nothing to do with professional wrestling.
- KEN SHAMROCK vs. SAVIO VEGA (w/ Miguel Perez)
Ken beats the salsa out of Savio, making him submit with an ankle hold.
Miguel Perez tries to interfere with no success.
Steve Austin is shown pulling up to the arena in a snazzy looking pickup
with "Austin 3:16" painted on the door (as well as other identifying
"Stone Cold" logos on the hood and such). I thought Cornette said
everyone who was supposed to be there already was? Austin make a beer
run?
- Rocky "the Rock" Maivia comes to the ring for an interview, flanked by
the other Nation of Domination members. As Rocky speaks, strange things
happen: the lights flicker, his mic cuts out, "Rocky Sucks" flashes on
the screen. Rocky cuts his comments short and sends the NOD off to check
out what the problem is. Steve Austin then appears on the Titan-Tron,
showing him in the control truck messing with the switches and buttons.
Austin says "when you're walking through the airport and your beeper goes
off, and it says 'Austin 3:16', you'll know your ass is mine!" Austin
asks Rocky if it's "live or Memorex?"
Back in the ring Austin is shown sneaking up behind Rocky. Rocky's beeper
goes off and he checks it. Presumably seeing "3:16" his eyes nearly pop
out of his head. Austin whirls him around and delivers a Stone Cold
Stunner. The NOD returns, but Austin slides out to grab a chair. By then
Rocky has scooped up the IC belt and he and the NOD make their getaway.
Austin offers Maivia an early Thanksgiving bird by flipping him one.
- Replay of what just happened.
- CRUSH vs. JEFF JARRETT
No match. After Crush rides his bike to the ring they cut to Jarrett in
the lockerroom. Jarrett says McMahon hasn't lived up to his end of their
contract, pointing out the shabby quality of the accommodations (as well
as the opponent in the ring). Jarrett, for some reason, is dressed like
a futuristic Aztec priest. Crush wins the match via forfeit.
The lights then cut out, the pyros blow and Kane comes out. Crush quickly
falls victim to a chokeslam and Tombstone Piledriver. The other DOA
bikers come out to pull Crush from the ring. WWF official Jerry Brisco
accidentally bumps into Kane and he gets slammed as well.
Wow ... two "Nitro's" in one night!
- VADER vs. SHAWN MICHAELS (w/ Degeneration X)
Before Shawn and crew hit the ring they bring out DX's newest member:
Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart. One can imagine a TV screen being shot out
somewhere in Calgary. Vader has one eye bandaged (from the rubbing
alcohol tossed by Luna).
The match starts during the commercial break. This one is almost all
Vader. Neidhart shows he's definitely on DX's side by pulling down the
ropes as Vader hits them, sending him to the floor. He and Hunter then
stomp on Vader as Shawn distracts the ref. Vader is tossed back in, but
continues to dominate Michaels. Vader sets up Shawn for the Vaderbomb,
but Hunter throws a cup of "hot" coffee in Vader's good eye (as Neidhart
distracts the ref). Shawn nails the Superkick and covers for the pin.
The newly expanded Degeneration X celebrates in the ring. Suddenly Chyna,
who had surreptitiously circled around behind Neidhart, whomps him with a
crotch shot from the rear. Shawn and Hunter turn and clothesline the
Anvil to the mat. The show ends with the three stomping on Neidhart as
Shawn yells stuff like "Who is the 'Icon'?!" into the mic.
- Next week: Michinoku vs. Aguila. Christopher vs. Taylor.
Comments:
Four matches. I generally liked all the interviews and angles, but showing
only four matches in two hours is inexcusable. Since the four matches they
DID show were okay (barely), my only major complain this week was the lack
of in-ring action. Maybe we're lucky, though, in that we didn't have to see
the Truth Commission or Godwinns.
Maivia's reaction to his beeper was one of the funniest things I've seen in
the last six months.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bottom Line:
There's too many PPV's. World War 3, which I won't criticize too much (since
I didn't see it) came off as very weak listening to it via RealAudio. With
"November to Remember" this Sunday and "Degeneration X" next week, that's
just too damn many PPV's. Let's not forget Starrcade, which is only about
four weeks away. Quality line-ups aside, it's just too hard to get fired up
for them when they now happen almost every other week. The PPV's suffer from
the matches being underdeveloped, while the TV shows suffer from having to
hype the PPV's, which hampers the ability to set up coherent, well thought
out angles and storylines. It seems the best they can do is like in the case
of Hennig vs. Flair: one wrestler gets a few wins over the other, then the
other (generally the face) gets his revenge the second or third time around.
This pretty much describes the Guerrero/Mysterio feud to a "T".
Of course none of these are new observations. It's just that they seem
especially noticeable now with the current scheduling of the shows. There was
barely any time between Halloween Havoc and World War 3, and they're already
hyping Starrcade now (as well as, to a lesser extent, "Souled Out 2" and
"SuperBrawl VIII"). The WWF, to their credit, hasn't started shoving the
Royal Rumble down our throats yet (but that'll begin soon enough).
The ratings were interesting this week. Nitro did a 3.9, while RAW pulled in
a 3.0: the closest margin of difference since before Luger beat Hogan on
Nitro for the World Title several months back. Both of these are slightly
down from the last few weeks, with Nitro's drop being a bit bigger. A look
at the quarterly breakdowns showed that RAW lost viewers during some of the
lengthier interview segments-Slaughter's in particular. Had they shown a few
more matches the numbers may have been even closer. You can see all the
numbers for yourself at "1Wrestling.com".
In other ratings news, WWF Superstars beat WCW Saturday Night this past
weekend for the first time in ... well, a LONG time. They also tied them the
week before, which many in the TV business would count as a win to
Superstars since it had a higher share (due to the smaller number of overall
TV viewers on Sunday mornings). In fact, Superstars has been tying Saturday
Night roughly three out of every four weeks for the past several months.
When Saturday Night does beat Superstars, it has only been by a slight
margin (usually well below half a ratings point). This past weekend on
Superstars they started the show by thanking the fans for making them the
most watched wrestling show the previous weekend, which means that they may
actually have narrowly beat Saturday Night instead of just tying them (as
was reported on the Internet). If this was the case, that makes two weeks in
a row in which Superstars beat Saturday Night. With the show having a good
share for the timeslot, it is rapidly becoming a very important show for the
WWF. The WWF should seriously consider putting more resources into the
show, airing more original matches (and being less of a RAW recap show). If
they could feature less of the "controversial" subject matter, yet maintain
the ratings, Superstars could alone serve as a valuable asset in the WWF's
relationship with the USA Network.
I think the WWF should start busting up the various gangs and "factions" in
the WWF, then go back to pushing guys like Ahmed Johnson, Crush and Savio
Vega as singles wrestlers. There's some slight talent there being wasted in
these matches, which invariably end in run-in DQ's. A lot of these guys
could be pushed as straight up tag teams as well. They could also dump the
Truth Commission altogether, and put the Godwinns out to pasture. They also
need to start showing the OTHER Light Heavyweights in matches together. Just
because they were showing the tournament match this week didn't mean that
they couldn't show a Super Loco/Tajiri match (just as an example). And green
or not, they need to get Brakus and Mark Henry in the ring. Same with Glenn
Kulka. Marc Mero is being wasted as well (though things may look up if they
do indeed kick off a Mero/Dude Love feud soon). It's time for some new
blood, and with the build to the royal Rumble about to begin, this is the
time to start it. ECW, maybe?
As for WCW, just wake me up after Sting beats Hogan for the title. Maybe
then they'll get back to some REAL wrestling.
You know, I'd actually have given Nitro the win this week if ANYTHING had
actually happened.
On a whole other topic, local station KBSU (which is run by students at the
nearby Bemidji State University) started airing Music City Wrestling this
Monday. The best thing I can say about it is that it has a charming cheap
look to it. I guess I'm just spoiled. MCW airs at 6:00 PM, ending just as
Nitro starts. They also show ECW at 10:00 PM, which is just after RAW ends.
It's obviously being put together by some serious wrestling fans, and kudos
go out to whoever they are.
I'm sorry this week's installment was so late. Happy Thanksgiving,
everyone!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Week's Winner: RAW.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Slobberknocker Central" and "Monday Night Recap" are copyright 1997 by
John Petrie, and all opinions expressed therein are his own, and not those
of "Internet Access, Inc". Check the "Slobberknocker Central" main page for
info on how to receive the "Recap" free via E-Mail every week.
Volume One, Number 106 of the "Monday Night Recap", November 24th, 1997.
John Petrie
petrie@bji.net
Slobberknocker Central
http://www.bji.net/pages/petrie/index.html